Trailblazer Awards are grants from the Parkinson's Foundation that fund innovative research addressing critical gaps in the understanding and treatment of Parkinson's disease. The program supports researchers pursuing high-impact science across areas including disease mechanisms, biomarker development, and therapeutic strategies.

In a recent funding cycle, the foundation awarded $1,130,000 in total across seven individual Trailblazer Awards. Eligible applicants are researchers at all career stages whose work addresses unmet needs in PD science and treatment. The foundation encourages applications from scientists tackling both basic and translational questions related to how Parkinson's impacts the brain and body.

Currently Funded Grants | Parkinson's Foundation We focus on understanding how Parkinson’s impacts the brain and body and to guide the development of new treatments . Our research areas help explain why people experience PD differently, improve care today and build the foundation for targeted therapies and future cures.

Through independent investigator awards, fellowships and early-career programs , we support innovative science and train the next generation of Parkinson’s researchers. While working to make life better today for everyone living with PD, we also focus on the next Parkinson’s breakthrough. The Parkinson’s Foundation prioritizes three areas of research to change the course of Parkinson's.

This area of research explores how and why Parkinson's impacts the brain and body. Understanding the biology of PD is essential to defeating this disease. Importantly, discoveries in this area can serve as a starting point for investigators working toward new treatments.

Understanding Neural Circuitry These studies might take a big-picture view of how the brain and nervous system work or drill into the details of how individual brain cells talk to each other. Both paths help us understand how the brain should function and where problems start when PD causes normal processes to malfunction.

Parkinson’s symptoms are diverse and can change everything from the way a person moves to the ways they experience the world. Investigating movement, and non-movement symptoms help researchers understand the impact of Parkinson’s and generate a path to create new medicines.

Combined, these three areas of investigation help us improve treatment, understand why people experience PD differently, and lay the groundwork for more targeted therapies to build a path to a cure.

2025 Parkinson’s Foundation Research Grant Recipients Stanley Fahn Junior Faculty Awards | 3 awards totaling $900,000 Provide critical funding to early career scientists to further their PD research University of Wisconsin, Madison, Madison, WI From Mice to Man: Modulating Brainstem Networks for Effortless Locomotor Coordination in Parkinson's Disease University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA Subcortical stimulation-entrained gamma oscillations for adaptive deep brain stimulation in Parkinson’s disease University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA Identifying Sentinel Diagnoses to Improve the Detection of Prodromal and Early Parkinson's Disease Impact Awards | 6 awards totaling $1,200,000 Provide the support that will enable researchers to test new ideas with an impact to the PD community and generate compelling results that will facilitate continued investment from the Parkinson’s Foundation and other funders University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL Uncovering the dopaminergic mechanisms of early cognitive deficits in Parkinson’s disease Regents of the University of Minnesota - Twin Cities, Minneapolis, MN The effects of vagus nerve stimulation on intrinsic lower leg spinal motoneuron excitability in Parkinson’s disease University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX Unlocking the Atomic Binding Site of a Novel High-Affinity Molecule to Alpha-Synuclein in Parkinson’s Brain and Cell Models University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, NE New approaches for understanding dopaminergic neuron-specific mitochondrial alterations Nuria Vendrell-Llopis, PhD University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL Disambiguating Alpha-Synuclein’s Impact on Cognitive Decline Vlaams Instituut voor Biotechnologie (Flanders Institute for Biotechnology, VIB), Ghent, Belgium Validation of nanobody- and peptide-based chaperones for Glucocerebrosidase (GCase) as a novel therapeutic strategy to fight Parkinson’s disease Trailblazer Awards | 7 awards totaling $1,130,000 Provide support for research addressing gaps in the understanding and treatment of PD Cleveland Clinic Foundation, Cleveland, OH Utilizing AI to realize the value of skin biopsy phosphorylated alpha-synuclein in early diagnosis of Parkinson's disease California Pacific Medical Center (Sutter Bay Hospitals), San Francisco, CA Long-term follow-up of TOPAZ participants Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre, Nijmegen, Netherlands Slow-SPEED: Slowing Parkinson’s Early through Exercise Dosage Simone Engelender, MD, PhD Technion Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel A Novel Peptide Strategy to Prevent a-Synuclein Accumulation and Aggregation in PD and DLB Royal Veterinary College, London, UK Defining the impact of the LRRK2 G2385R variant University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT Identification of candidate Parkinson’s disease predisposition genes in multi-generational high-risk pedigrees VUMC Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands Scrutinizing cellular shuttling in Parkinson's disease: a more fluid perspective on Lewy bodies Postdoctoral Fellowships | 6 awards totaling $860,000 Enable young scientists fresh from their PhD training to study at major research institutions Weill Cornell Medicine, New York, NY Mechanisms of LRRK2 Activation in Parkinson's Disease-Associated Lysosome Dysfunction California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA Self-assembling synuclein induces Parkinsonian pathology in vitro and in vivo Xiaolin (Lindsay) Huang, PhD University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA Dopamine Dynamics and Sleep Deficits in Parkinson's Disease Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX Using Causal Pivot Model and AI to identify novel PD risk variants University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), San Francisco, CA Dissecting neural circuits regulating sleep fragmentation in Parkinson's disease Katherine (Katy) Surridge, PhD Weill Cornell Medicine, New York, NY Determining Parkinson’s Disease-associated LRRK2’s cellular function using designer small molecules Melvin Yahr Parkinson’s Disease Clinical Research Award | 1 award totaling $50,000 Supports clinical research into Parkinson’s disease conducted by young investigators who are underrepresented in current research (jointly supported by the Parkinson’s Foundation and the International Association of Parkinsonism and Related Disorders [IAPRD]) University of Florida, Gainesville, FL Artificial intelligence-based deep brain stimulation programming for Parkinson’s disease Parkinson’s Foundation-ABF Clinical Research Training Scholarship | 1 award totaling $150,000 Supports Parkinson’s disease research training for clinician-scientists who are members of the American Academy of Neurology (AAN) (jointly supported by the Parkinson’s Foundation and the American Brain Foundation in collaboration with AAN).

Washington University, St.

Louis, MO Characterizing Dystonia-Specific Functional Brain Networks in Parkinson Disease and Focal Isolated Dystonia Summer Student Fellowships | 12 awards totaling $48,000 Supports students, specifically advanced undergraduates and medical students, in their pursuit of Parkinson's-related summer research projects Laval University, Quebec, Canada Involvement of astrocytes in Parkinson's disease via disruption of the brain's peripheral immune axis and alteration of the neurovascular unit CIUSSS du Nord-de-l'Ile-Montreal, Montreal, Canada Multimodal MRI markers to predict phenoconversion in isolated REM sleep behavior disorder VA Puget Sound Health Care System - Seattle VA Medical Center, Seattle, WA Investigating the Role of Ceramide Metabolism in Pathogenic Protein Aggregation in PD Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, IL Mechanisms of toxicity in GBA-Parkinson’s disease University of Florida, Gainesville, FL Targeting NaV1.

7 for the Treatment of Parkinson’s Disease-Associated Pain University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA Exploring Glymphatic Dysfunction as a Biomarker of Dopaminergic Activity and Disease Severity in Prodromal and De Novo Parkinson's Disease University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL Investigating the role of Rab27b effector protein Coronin1c in regulating alpha-synuclein pathology and lysosomal activity University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL Exploring Intestinal SLC4A2 as a Potential Modifier of Dopaminergic Neuron Degeneration in a C.

elegans Model of Parkinson’s Disease University Health Network, Toronto, Canada Transcranial Ultrasound Stimulation of the Pedunculopontine Nucleus to Address Freezing of Gait in Parkinson's Disease Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN Investigation of Beta Power Change in the Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex as a Biomarker for Deep Brain Stimulation Associated Cognitive Impairment Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA Investigating the Effects of Low-Frequency Deep Brain Stimulation on Tremor Weill Cornell Medicine, New York, NY Unraveling mechanisms of sex differences in pain symptoms of Parkinson’s diseases Visiting Scholar Awards | 8 awards totaling $32,000 Provide graduate students and postdoctoral fellows with opportunities for expanding their existing skillset to benefit their Parkinson's research Valerio Antonio Arcobelli University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy Exploring the Longitudinal Decline in Newly Diagnosed PD Using Machine Learning Approaches University Medical Center Groningen, Groningen, Netherlands Cognitive Decline and Cholinergic Degeneration in Parkinson's Disease University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Canada Dual-hit hypothesis-based approach to modulating alpha-synuclein levels and Parkinson’s disease pathogenesis University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia Assessing Retinal Biomarkers in Parkinson's Disease Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ Toxicant-induced priming of inflammasome pathways in Parkinson's disease Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY An exploration of the relationship between HLA alleles and T-cell function in PD Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA Investigating the Interaction between Cortical and Subcortical Regions Involved in Voluntary Motor Control and Speech Production in Parkinson's Disease: A Combined EEG and STN-DBS Approach University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL Identifying convergent regulatory elements of Parkinson’s associated environmental toxicants 2024 Parkinson’s Foundation Research Grant Recipients Impact Awards | 6 awards totaling $899,480 Provide the support that will enable researchers to test new ideas with an impact to the PD community and generate compelling results that will facilitate continued investment from the Parkinson’s Foundation and other funders Edward Burton, MD, DPhil, FRCP University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA Oxidative damage to telomeres in Parkinson's disease pathogenesis Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA A potent, brain-penetrant inducer of parkin-independent mitophagy University College London Institute of Neurology, London, UK Understanding the GBA1 risk factor in African Parkinson’s disease Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, MA Pathologic changes of the enteric nervous system in early Parkinson’s disease Radboud University Medical Center, Nijmegen, Netherlands Whole brain modeling and perturbation to understand and better treat depression in Parkinson’s disease Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA Dissecting microbiome heterogeneity to uncover the mechanisms of Parkinson’s disease Launch Awards | 3 awards totaling $1,200,000 Enable postdoctoral researchers to complete needed mentored training and transition promptly to independent research careers in PD University of California at San Francisco, San Francisco, CA Investigating the gut microbiome as a modifier of Parkinson’s disease therapeutic response University of Florida, Gainesville, FL Investigating the effects of LRRK2 mutations in immune exhaustion University of California at San Francisco, San Francisco, CA Investigating the role of corticostriatal synaptic plasticity in impulse control disorder in Parkinson's disease Postdoctoral Fellowships | 5 awards totaling $686,000 Enable young scientists fresh from their PhD training to study at major research institutions Amitabh Bhattacharya, PhD University Health Network, Ontario, Canada Non-invasive transcranial ultrasound stimulation of the pedunculopontine nucleus as a treatment of freezing of gait in Parkinson's disease Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, NC LRRK2-HDAC6 pathway as a mediator of tau neurotoxicity in Parkinson's disease Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Berlin, Germany Understanding and modulating network dynamics in Levodopa-induced dyskinesia with non-invasive cortical method Stanford University, Stanford, CA Motor memory engrams in Parkinson's disease Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA The regulation of subcellular mito-nuclear balance and gene expression dynamics in Parkinson’s disease Summer Student Fellowships | 13 awards totaling $52,000 Supports students, specifically advanced undergraduates and medical students, in their pursuit of Parkinson's-related summer research projects Université Laval, Québec, Canada Understanding the neuroprotective benefits of polyphenol metabolites in Parkinson's disease Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA Developing a novel Human Microglia-Neuronal Co-culture Model to study Gut-Brain Axis in Parkinson’s Disease University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL Markers of Glial Function in a Novel Model of Parkinson's Disease Risk CIUSSS du Nord-de-l'Ile-Montreal, Montreal, Canada Validation of a prognostic marker of Lewy body dementia atrophy in isolated REM sleep behavior disorder Kennedy Krieger Institute, Baltimore, MD Using video-based pose estimation to measure change in motor function in persons with Parkinson's disease University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA Educational Attainment and Cognitive & Motor Reserve as Modifiers of Long-Term Motor Function in Parkinson's Disease University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA Characterizing Tremor “Sweetspots” and Side Effect “Sourspots” following Thalamic High-Intensity Focused Ultrasound in Tremor-Dominant Parkinson’s Disease Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, New York, NY Repurposing Chemotherapeutics for the Treatment of Parkinson’s Disease Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD Understanding ASC specks prion-like spreading mechanism and its effect on a-synuclein pathology Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, NC VPS35 and LRRK2 Interplay underlying PD pathology Emory University, Atlanta, GA Behavioral Analysis of a Parkinson's Disease Mouse Model: Exploring Bilateral Motor Coordination Emory University, Atlanta, GA Video-based Quantitative Analysis of Orofacial Movements and Pupil Activity in a Parkinson’s Disease Mouse Model Yale University, New Haven, CT A Gut Feeling: Influence of Gut Microbiota on Alpha-Synuclein Pathology Visiting Scholar Awards | 6 awards totaling $24,000 Provide graduate students and postdoctoral fellows with opportunities for expanding their existing skillset to benefit their Parkinson's research University of Florida, Gainesville, FL Gut-first biomarker discovery within Parkinson's disease: single-cell spatial molecular imaging identifies molecular patterns of inflammation in colon and brain University of Rome Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy Investigating common genetic background in Parkinson's Disease and dystonia University of Sao Paulo, Sao Paulo, Brazil Identification of disease-specific brain transport targets for Parkinson's disease (PD) University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario Uncovering motor deficits in isolated REM sleep behaviour disorder using a comprehensive battery of clinical, laboratory, and free-living mobility assessments Institut Pasteur de Tunis, Tunis, Tunisia Validating the Protective Impact of Ion Channel Blockers in a Parkinson's Disease Model: Insights from Patient-Specific iPSC-Derived Dopaminergic Neurons Texas A&M University, College Station, TX Sensory contributions to balance control in individuals with Parkinson Disease If you are a Parkinson's researcher, clinician or fellow, learn more about our awards and grants designed to help you further your research and career in the Parkinson's field.

EXPLORE OUR RESEARCH GRANTS & AWARDS PROGRAMS Join the Fight Against Parkinson's Support ground-breaking research, care and community outreach Neuro Talk: Research You Fund Episode 126: Community Grant Recipient: Smile Through Art Program Neuro Talk: Top 3 Parkinson’s Disease Research Areas We Fund Parkinson’s Foundation Research Advocates Influence Parkinson’s Funding Find Out What Our Researchers Are Working on Right Now Neuro Talk: Research You Fund Send me communications from my local chapter - Select - Alabama Alaska American Samoa Arizona Arkansas Armed Forces (Canada, Europe, Africa, or Middle East) Armed Forces Americas Armed Forces Pacific California Colorado Connecticut Delaware District of Columbia Federated States of Micronesia Florida Georgia Guam Hawaii Idaho Illinois Indiana Iowa Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Maine Marshall Islands Maryland Massachusetts Michigan Minnesota Mississippi Missouri Montana Nebraska Nevada New Hampshire New Jersey New Mexico New York North Carolina North Dakota Northern Mariana Islands Ohio Oklahoma Oregon Palau Pennsylvania Puerto Rico Rhode Island South Carolina South Dakota Tennessee Texas Utah Vermont Virgin Islands Virginia Washington West Virginia Wisconsin Wyoming Alberta British Columbia Manitoba New Brunswick Newfoundland and Labrador Nova Scotia Northwest Territories Nunavut Ontario Prince Edward Island Quebec Saskatchewan Yukon What is your Parkinson's connection?

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